"To you here present, we Philip Denzill Parsons, knight, sheriff of the

county of Surrey, assisted by Aubrey Dominick, Esq., our clerk and

registrar, and by our usual officers, duly provided by the direct and

special commands of her Majesty, in virtue of our commission, and the

rights and duties of our charge, and with authority from the Lord

Chancellor of England, the affidavits having been drawn up and recorded,

regard being had to the documents communicated by the Admiralty, after

verification of attestations and signatures, after declarations read and

heard, after confrontation made, all the statements and legal

information having been completed, exhausted, and brought to a good and

just issue--we signify and declare to you, in order that right may be

done, that you are Fermain Clancharlie, Baron Clancharlie and

Hunkerville, Marquis de Corleone in Sicily, and a peer of England; and

God keep your lordship!"

And he bowed to him.

The serjeant on the right, the doctor, the justice of the quorum, the

wapentake, the secretary, all the attendants except the executioner,

repeated his salutation still more respectfully, and bowed to the ground

before Gwynplaine.

"Ah," said Gwynplaine, "awake me!"

And he stood up, pale as death.

I come to awake you indeed," said a voice which had not yet been heard.

The Man Who Laughs